Merfolk Mating Rituals Are Confusing

CH 11

The library is quiet on Wednesday morning, smelling so strongly of weathered books, and centuries old wisdom, that you can already feel an existential headache pounding behind your eyes and permeating through your very being like an unwelcome cold... Or maybe it was just the combination of your late period (granted it was only a day late but still!) and the 5th book you've read in a row about Greek mythos finally getting to you.

All of them, from ancient ass paperbacks to even the most modernized hardcovers, contained words and names that were almost complete gibberish to you, save for the obvious ones like Aphrodite, and Hades. The others, like... Dinon?... Dion... Dionysus?... Wine guy, were completely unreadable to to your tiny rat brain as you searched and searched. The one you really wanted to find never stood out to you from the hundreds of other footnotes and minor deities. Aglaopheme...

Whatever that meant, it obviously wasn't Italian, because when you repeated the phrase/name to Sales as Tiziano and Squalo were talking to Trish over the phone, he simply raised an eyebrow at you, and shrugged. You tried again with Zucchero which earned you an owlish look, and his head tilting as he flatly asked, "The son of what?"

(This also made you hyper-aware that you are living around an oddly large amount of Italian and women... Weird.)

You're groaning like the dead and rubbing a palm across your irritated eyes and smoothing the other across your belly when your phone buzzes harshly against the wood of your study space. Although it's no more than a soft rumble against thick wood, the phone may as well have turned into a jackhammer on concrete with how heavily the noise bounced around your skull. It made your teeth ache, and you sneer hatefully at the small device.
As if to test your willpower against its persistence, it buzzes again... And again... And again...

Fuck concussions.

Snarling a slew of Italian "curses" that Squalo taught you - which you later found out were actually just names of various flowers and foods - you lunge for the device hatefully. Making sure to face it away from your irritated eyes, you turn it on, blindly lower the brightness, and turn it back to risk your poor eyeballs. While it doesn't immediately burn out your retinas, the irritation you feel when you don't see an actual notification makes your teeth audibly grind... And then the notification finally pops up.

You squint, then grimace guiltily at the little flower icons.

That... That was another recent development. Beyond Tiziano's sudden jumpy, shady behaviour and Squalo's newly abrasive attitude, there is the sudden rapid fluctuations in intensity of both Giorno's and Bruno's affection. Sometimes, only one would text you at a time, usually asking questions related to how your - now confirmed - concussion felt and if you should really be up at 3 am, little sirena, go sleep right now. Other times they would both text you, usually at the same time and with wildly different conversations that would always circle back to "Wait a minute, you aren't supposed to be on your phone for this long, go put it down!"

Before their flirting had been gentle, like a pair of wolves attempting to approach a sleeping doe, always skirting your boundaries with their heads held low. Now?

Now it was like the proverbial doe had been startled awake, and they were on the hunt.

Ever the smooth charmer and flirt, you almost didn't notice that Giorno's usual flirting methods had changed. His careful hit-and-run tactic - brushing his hand across your spine, flashing small winks, and loosely grabbing your hands - had been replaced by a more... Aggressive approach.

Now, in the few times you met up with him, he is flat out grabbing you. Never hard, and never anywhere below the belt. But it's still a noticeable shift in tactics, and each time it happens, it makes you a little more uncomfortable worried.

Bruno has apparently decided that subtly died with chivalry - although his chivalrous nature never left him. Any and all coffee dates had him staring at your mouth, and hands longingly, his head tilted just so as he openly licked at his lips. You had called him out on it, once. All it earned you was a smile and head tilt.

All of that... Weird behaviour had just made you avoid them more... And maybe also ignore some texts? It was only for a day! All of the sudden attention gave you a headache, and that's on top of the weird migraines you already get whenever you have to deal with them... Not in a bad way! Maybe? It was just... They were the only people you ever got so... Verbally confused with and it was just...

Sighing a little, you reluctantly open the messages in an attempt to assuage the guilt gnawing on your heart. Pausing for a moment, you blink.

From: 🌼🥀

Hey, can we talk?